Is Sugar Ray Leonard the complete boxer?

That was a good one

:good

 

Of come on, he could school Ray on his crack taking technique.

 

.............Leonard was more a complete fighter than maybe 95% of world class boxers throughout history. Any talk of "oh, he wasn't a classical boxer in the purist's sense" or "his movement was the biggest part of his defense, therefore I must deduct .6 points from his strength chart on my list of the 1,000 greatest fighters of all time" is just goofy.

 

Yeah, some people are just picky beyond belief. I'll hold my hands up, earlier I was probably guilty myself. He was among the top tier of complete fighters who have graced then gloves.

 

SRR too is a great mention and Jofre is excellent all round. Duran had a lot peak. Even Wilfredo Gomez early career.

 

Hahahaha

 

A good techniton.
Complete ?
No way.
Didnt really go to the body.
Not with any authority anyway.

 

..............This is the kind of thing I'm talking about.

 

Leonard was a superb puncher downstairs. He wasn't a head hunter. IMO, he went to the body even better than Hearns. He usually started downstairs and finished to the head. Not as regular to the body like Chavez or Duran, but equally as authoritive when he did.

 

There is a tier of fighters that you could label as complete and Leonard belongs there...but I wanted to discuss some of the flaws he did display to see maybe if there was one or more fighters who packaged things better or if SRL just was the most complete boxer and even with the very small amount things we could critique, thats the best we could ever hope for.

I think we found only by nit picking can you fault this man.

 

If i had to nitpick i'd start by saying he could have utilised his jab a bit more.

 

Totally. A prime example, the rematch with Duran.

 

Leonard's bodywork was great.He threw those brutal left-hooks to the body as good as anyone.

 

No boxer has ever been 100% perfect, even the great sugar ray robinson had his flaws (though not many). But as far as being able to do everything at a high level of proficiency I would have to say that he is about as complete as you can get.

Many called joe louis the perfect fighter but he lacked foot speed and a first rate chin. Muhammad Ali, as great as he was, was not complete because he almost never punched to the body and although he was a better puncher than many think, he was no one punch ko artist.

Ray did everything well , was good enough defensively and could go to the head and body with equal effectiveness. He also had a great chin . Combine everything together and you have a near perfect fighter.

 

Leonard had tons of talent and speed, and could best a lot of quality boxers. I would've liked to see SRL take on larger fighters and beat them in their primes as well. The other Sugar Ray did this. However, I don't think this one could, though. Leonard would've won quite a bit more fights, but lost a bit more as well.
As I just said, a superb athlete. But, for all his immense boxing skills, there also seems to be a lack of blue-collar grittiness and hard edge that is needed to hang with the "monsters of the MW", so to speak.